One of the horror genre's "most widely read critics" (Rue Morgue # 68), "an accomplished film journalist" (Comic Buyer's Guide #1535), and the award-winning author of Horror Films of the 1980s (2007), The Rock and Roll Film Encyclopedia (2007) and Horror Films of the 1970s (2002), John Kenneth Muir, presents his blog on film, television and nostalgia, named one of the Top 100 Film Studies Blog on the Net.

Thursday, May 17, 2018

From
May 25 to June 2nd 1974, Chicago is terrorized by a brutal murderer
of women. A stripper and masseuse are among the victims.

Idiosyncratic
INS reporter Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin) itches to investigate the
ripper-style homicides, but has been tasked by his boss, Tony Vincenzo (Simon
Oakland) with a different assignment. Kolchak has been ordered to fill in for
the vacationing Miss Emily, and answer her “Dear Emily” letters.

Kolchak
disobeys Tony’s orders and begins to investigate the shadowy killer who seems
to evade police (and bullet-fire) with ease.

He
soon realizes that over seventy women have been killed in the last 80 years,
all over the world.

They have all been
murdered in the exact fashion of the Chicago deaths. Even more disturbingly,
they trace their origin to Jack the Ripper, in London.

Oddly
enough, Kolchak is able to determine the Ripper’s hide-out from a Dear Emily
letter he remembers reading...

The
first regular hour-long episode of Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974 –
1975) is a bit of a disappointment, in part due to the nature of its titular
monster.

The Ripper is a shadowy figure
with a cane and cape, who leaps across city roofs like a superhero, evades
bullets easily, and isn’t seen to vet any bloody handiwork.I understand that TV of the 1970’s could not
show extreme -- or even moderate -- violence, but this monster comes across, at
least visually, as toothless. Energetic, for certain, but toothless.He’s a running, fighting, indestructible
force, but not at all scary. He throws police men and innocent bystanders around, but is never seen to stab or cut, or or gut anyone.

Still,
in some way, “The Ripper” is an important influence in TV history, not for re-telling yet another variation of the Jack the Ripper tale, but for anticipating the idea of a killer who lives for
decades, and reappears in modern times after a long absence.This facet of the killer forecasts the Tooms
monster-of-the-week on The X-Files (1993-2002), though both
“Squeeze” and “Tooms” are, frankly, superior to “The Ripper” both in terms of
writing and execution.

In
terms of a Jack the Ripper story, Kolchak: The Night Stalker,in 1974 ,was a late comer to the party. Boris Karloff’s Thriller in1961 (“Yours
Truly, Jack the Ripper,”), The Sixth Sense in 1972 (“With
Affection, Jack the Ripper”) and even Star Trek in 1967 (“Wolf in the Fold”)
had already featured the murderer, and some supernatural or paranormal element.

Where
“The Ripper” shines is in the arena where the series always proves remarkable,
frankly: in diagramming the sleaze of the 1970’s urban government and
bureaucracy.

For
lack of a better term, one might conclude that Kolchak is reckoning with “The
Swamp” as he hunts his monsters, though resolutely unable to drain it.

Instead,
Kolchak must, well, negotiate the
swamp.Watching him do so, week after
week, is one of the continual joys of this forty-four year-old series. In “The Ripper,” Kolchak attends a
police press conference where he is stonewalled with euphemisms and lies that
obfuscate the truth. Sarah Huckabee Sanders would be proud at the way that Captain
Warren (Ken Lynch) manages to stand in front of a podium, and provide
non-answers to every single question that the public has the right to know the
answers about. He denies facts, and spins lies with the best of them. But Kolchak's skills for pushing and prodding, for needling, are incomparable.

Many
weeks on the series, we will see Kolchak bribe civil servants, flatter obsequious gatekeepers,
and grapple with politicians and policemen who want to keep him -- and the
people -- in the dark.The quality that
makes Kolchak (and indeed, many journalists) so admirable is the fact that he
knows what his job is.

It's reporting the truth, so people will be informed.

His duty is to
follow the facts, wherever they lead.

The spin-artists, liars, and mouthpieces for entrenched power, have
forgotten that it is their job to serve the public, not their masters.“The Ripper” diagrams this aspect of Kolchak’s
character, and professional life brilliantly. He speaks truth to Power. And the Powers that be hate him for it.

I
also enjoy how the series makes Kolchak a reluctant hero, when it comes to
battling monsters not of human nature. Here, he scares himself while in the
Ripper’s house, and shrieks with terror. Kolchak is a hero, but not a
traditional one. He is brave, but also very fallible, and human.When he faces monsters, it is usually with a
keen sense of not just responsibility, but terror. There's no joy or satisfaction hunting monsters in the dark. The satisfaction comes from discovering (and at least attempting to...) report the truth about them.

Next
week, a look at perhaps the greatest episode of the series: “The Zombie.”

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About John

award-winning author of 27 books including Horror Films FAQ (2013), Horror Films of the 1990s (2011), Horror Films of the 1980s (2007), TV Year (2007), The Rock and Roll Film Encyclopedia (2007), Mercy in Her Eyes: The Films of Mira Nair (2006),, Best in Show: The Films of Christopher Guest and Company (2004), The Unseen Force: The Films of Sam Raimi (2004), An Askew View: The Films of Kevin Smith (2002), The Encyclopedia of Superheroes on Film & Television (2004), Exploring Space:1999 (1997), An Analytical Guide to TV's Battlestar Galactica (1998), Terror Television (2001), Space:1999 - The Forsaken (2003) and Horror Films of the 1970s (2002).

What the Critics Say...

"...some of the best writing about the genre has been done by John Kenneth Muir. I am particularly grateful to him for the time and attention he's paid to things others have overlooked, under-appreciated and often written off. His is a fan's perspective first, but with a critic's eye to theme and underscore, to influence and pastiche..." - Chris Carter, creator of The X-Files, in the foreword to Horror Films FAQ (October 2013).

"Hands down, John Kenneth Muir is one of the finest critics and writers working today. His deep analysis of contemporary American culture is always illuminating and insightful. John's film writing and criticism is outstanding and a great place to start for any budding writer, but one should also examine his work on comic books, TV, and music. His weighty catalog of books and essays combined with his significant blog production places him at the top of pop culture writers. Johns work is essential in understanding the centrality of culture in modern society." - Professor Bob Batchelor, cultural historian and Executive Director of the James Pedas Communication Center at Thiel College (2014).

"...an independent film scholar, [Muir] explains film studies concepts in a language that is reader-friendly and engaging..." (The Hindu, 2007)"...Muir's genius lies in his giving context to the films..." (Choice, 2007)